See? Now this was MUCH better. While not flawless, “The Other Thing” did a much better job of pushing the plot of the season forward in many meaningful ways. Including bringing together some reunions. But a key player is still hindering the season greatly.
I, of course, speak of Sarge. Or as I call him, Not-Coulson. Not-Coulson is a poke at the fans of the show, but it only works to a certain extent. For example, while I liked that we learned more about Not-Coulson’s mission in regards to him hunting creatures that can hurt worlds, it doesn’t excuse him basically saying all of Coulson’s lines from May’s flashbacks. Plus, while he claims he’s over 100 years old…it’s hard to know if that’s really true. Oh, and even HE thinks it’s ridiculous that he ended up on a planet where there was another “him”. And that’s sad when the writing has to point that out.
Granted, I’m happy that May tried to kill him, but the flashing back and forth between him and real Coulson felt weirdly forced in the end. And now she’s likely going to try and save him or something and I would hate for that to happen.
Meanwhile, I’m glad the death of Keller caused a lot of friction within Shield. With Yo-Yo basically being apathetic, the Doc not knowing if he can keep doing this, and Mac feeling the pressure of everything closing in around him. It led to some really great characters scenes, which I truly do appreciate.
Finally, the deep space storyline finally started yielding results that were worthwhile. Turns out the Chronocons lost their homeworld to either Not-Coulson or these Shriek beings. And now they need help from Daisy, Fitz and Simmons to somehow go back in time and prevent it from happening. Simmons basically sacrificing herself to be with Fitz was very beautiful, as was the heartbreaking departure of Daisy and crew. But, it was also heartwarming to see the crew return to Earth after so long.
I’m not sure what’s going to happen with Fitz-Simmons now, but I’m sure it’s not good. And I can’t wait to see what happens with Daisy and Not-Coulson.
All that being said, did we really need to hear about Enoch and that one lady getting it on in the “charging pod”? No, I don’t think we did.
Despite some key flaws, “The Other Thing” really was the best episode of the season now that it focused on the true plots and not cheap gags or pointless excursions. Hopefully this will continue because the season is slowly winding down.
4.5 out of 5 nerds
Todd Black
Todd Black is reader of comics, a watch of TV (a LOT of TV), and a writer of many different mediums. He's written teleplays, fan-fictions, and currently writes a comic book called Guardians (guardians-comic.com). He dreams of working at Nintendo, writing a SHAZAM! TV series, and working on Guardians for a very long time!
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